‘I have never hidden the fact that I did IVF’

Nordica Fertility Centre’s first In-vitro Fertilisation (IVF) baby has turned 10. The facility joined Master Julian Onwudinjo’s family to mark his birthday in Lagos where his mother, Francesca Onwudinjo, recounted her experience. OYEYEMI GBENGA-MUSTAPHA reports.

Emmanuel and Francesca Onwudinjo had been searching for the fruit of the womb for five agonising years when on September 14, 2004,they joined the growing list of happy parents of perfectly healthy IVF children with the birth of their son, Julian Oluchukwu, meaning “God’s work”.

At birth, Julian was a miracle to his parents. He clocked 10 last Sunday. In a chat, the boy, who wants to be an engineer, said his parents had always been open about the way he was conceived and born.

Julian’s mother, Mrs Francesca Onwudinjo recalled her journey to motherhood. “I got married in July 1999 and had Julian in 2004, that was five years interval. I was taking treatment at Lagoon Hospital, but went to the internet to search for solution. I was 25 and desperately looking for the fruit of the womb. I was in the office and was just going through the internet when I saw the website of Nordica Fertility Centre, I took the address, at that time the clinic was at Victoria Garden City (VGC) in Lekki. I went there and made enquiries. That was how I met Dr. Abayomi Ajayi who I had known at Lagoon Hospital. I tried the first time and to God be the glory, it was successful. There is never any harm trying.

Mrs Onwudinjo said she has never defended the fact that she gave birth though IVF.

“We went through the normal tests, there was nothing wrong. I was not intimidated by the cost. I had no fears or reservations at that time. I read a lot and I found out what the process was about. It was a kind of assisted process. I knew that. It wasn’t as if the baby was going to fall from heaven, it is a natural process. Julian was a normal baby, and has grown into a normal child”.

Mrs Onwudinjo has stood before congregations to talk about her experience. “I had no problems about the issue of stigma. I have never hidden the fact that I did assisted reproduction. There is nothing to hide because he is my blood. It was my egg that was taken as well as my husband’s sperm. So there is nothing to hide. For those that are hiding, it is ignorance. They need to be better educated about the process.

“The Church I attend does not preach against IVF. I recall a few years ago, a doctor was invited from Abuja to lecture women on the IVF. He did with his team and educated women and asked the church to bring out three women to be given free IVF cycles. They did. Out of them, one was 54 years old; now she has two kids, twins – a boy and a girl. The husband was 69 last year. Another is carrying her baby now.

“If I were to be in a Church that preaches against IVF, since I have gone through the process, I would try to educate the women and let them know that it is not as if the baby is coming from another planet. It is an assisted procedure just to help you to conceive. I can even go to the Pastor and use myself as example. Why would you suffer in silence when you know there is an alternative? Why are you dying in pains? Children come from God. You just try the best you can,” Francesca recounted.

“Julian is like a son to us all here, our greatest achievement indeed,” said Medical Director/CEO, Nordica Fertility Centre, Dr Abayomi Ajayi, who remarked that in keeping hopes alive by “Completing families” brought about the vision of setting up Nordica Fertility Centre, Lagos in 2003.

He recalled that the primary aim is to combat infertility by providing true ‘comfort centres’ where the pain of childless couples could be soothed emotionally and medically.

On Julian’s birth, Ajayi said it represented a milestone for Nordica and a new hope for parenthood. “Julian’s parents walked into Nordica Fertility Centre on October 11, 2003 and four months down the line after just one treatment cycle, the couple was greeted with the good news of the mother being pregnant with Julian. On September 14, 2004, the couple was blessed with Julian.

“In view of our successes, first with Julian our first baby and all those that came thereafter, has come the need for further advocacy by the parents in order to share the good news. While we have achieved monumental growth in the number of babies conceived, we have equally not neglected our corporate social responsibility. Working in conjunction with the Fertility Treatment Support Foundation, FTSF, free fertility treatments have been made available to over 58 couples with diverse infertility challenges. We also work with the ESGN, Endometriosis Support Group Nigeria, the only Foundation supporting this cause in West Africa.”

“The first centre opened on April 14, 2003 at Victoria Garden City, Lekki Lagos. But owing to the need for expansion, we moved to Ikoyi, Lagos in January 2008. The Yaba Clinic opened its doors in October 2003 and the Clinic in Asaba opened November 2009 . The newest centre in Asokoro Abuja was commissioned in November 2012.

“We were then and still are – driven by our essence, which is completing families. The numerous successes recorded within the organisation (and still counting) can be attributed to God, the hardworking staff and the clientele who have reposed their trust in us”.

On IVF, Ajayi said it is unfortunate that infertility is seen as a personal problem when it is actually a social problem which government can help put on the front burner. He said IVF success rate is the same everywhere in the world, but regrets the lack of nationwide data in Nigeria.

“The success rate is age-dependent. Julian’s mother had age on her side, because life comes primarily from the egg, so the younger the egg, when every other thing is normal, the better the success rate. This is why we tell people not to leave IVF as the last resort, because if you do, you are actually compromising on success rate.

“We want people to report early so that there will be proper assessment and if you need IVF, do it when chances are best, and the best can be done for you. For people above 35, we still have above 40 percent success rate; the problem in Nigeria is that a lot of people above 37 are doing IVF. But things are getting better.

According to Ajayi, sometimes there are couples that are seeing the traditional gynaecologist who is doing the assessment on them and everything is ok, but that is not so because the basic test can only identify a certain percentage of the problem.

“For somebody that is 45, the first thing to look at is the age. If we look at it from this point of view, it is the eggs that become babies, for such woman. Even if she is still menstruating regularly, the problem lies with age which cannot be detected by regular tests. We are not going to look at whether she is ovulating or not, we are not looking at the stock ovaries, even then such person has normal function, we know it cannot be true. You have to interpret your tests holistically, so it is like a 60-year old woman who has an ovary function test that says normal. It cannot be, you have to look at the whole person to make your decision.

He said when the vision of setting up Nordica Fertility Centre, Lagos was conceived, the primary aim was to courageously combat the plague of infertility by providing true “comfort centres” where the pain of childless couples could be soothed both emotionally and medically.

“Our first Centre opened on April 14, 2003 at Victoria Garden City, Lekki Lagos. But owing to our desire to be close to our clients and the fact that we were also rapidly expanding, we moved to Ikoyi, Lagos in January 2008. The Yaba Clinic opened its doors in October 2003 and in our bid to make our clients the centre of their world, another Clinic opened in Asaba in November 2009 and the newest Centre in Asokoro Abuja was commissioned in November 2012.

“The lack of information about fertility options coupled with the stigmatisation associated with childlessness has contributed to the reason why a lot of people do not explore the possibility of assisted conception. This should not be seen as a taboo but seen as a means to an end. “